Candle Lake still digging out from heavy winter snowfall as May approaches

The calendar says spring, but in Candle Lake, Sask., it still feels and looks more like winter.

After a summer last year of wildfire fears, Candle Lake is now dealing with a winter that won’t seem to go away.

With the snow already piled high, another fresh spring snowfall over the weekend has delayed the warmer season even further.

With that come fresh concerns about what the melt could bring.

“This week I turned 70, and I have never seen so much snow in my lifetime,” said Candle Lake Mayor Colleen Lavoie.

She said several feet of snow still remains where the tomatoes at the community garden had been planted already by this time last year.

“Last year, around the 20th of April, we had a bonfire on the beach,” Lavoie said.

This year, the hope is that all this snow will be gone before May long weekend. But as much as people want the snow to melt, they know it all has to go somewhere. And crews are already trying to get ahead of potential localized flooding, should there be a sudden spike in temperature.

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“Right now, what we’re trying to do is just move it away, so there is a spot where the water can flow,” said Brent Lutz, Chief Administrative Officer at Candle Lake.

They’re clearing ditches, hauling snow, and carving out pathways for the water to reach the lake.

“Now, the question is what can we do to assist the runoff here and make sure that happens with as little damage as possible,” Lutz added.

Whether it’s fire or snow, the challenge for communities like Candle Lake is the same: making the most of a short summer season, no matter what Mother Nature throws at them.

“We’ve got all our forces out working on this. And we are just assuring people we will be doing all that as can,” said Lutz.

And the concern isn’t just water. It’s timing.

As cabin owners watch water levels, business owners are watching the calendar.

After a down year last year because of wildfire concerns, the hope is that Candle Lake businesses can make the most of the short summer window.

“I know last year, our businesses suffered because they were closed down. So we were hoping this year that we would get lots of people up at the lake and that they could thrive this year,” Lutz said.

For now, it’s a balancing act, managing risk while preparing for the return of summer and the thousands of visitors it brings each year.